Rolling with the Flo: Ever-talented Kenny Florian readies for UFC 87

http://mmajunkie.comHe already may be the best television analyst in mixed martial arts. As a studio analyst, he has no peer.

As a prognosticator, he’s tops in his field and his newsletter almost reads like a post-fight recap and not a prefight prediction.

He speaks six languages, is the son of a heart surgeon and grew up in a well-to-do area of suburban Boston. At first glance, Kenny Florian might seem better suited for a job behind the cameras or on the production.

But this erudite, engaging man is as ferocious inside the octagon as any man in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

And while he’s one of the sport’s finest ambassadors, it’s the punishment he’s able to deliver, as well as take, that has endeared him to UFC president Dana White. They’re both from the Boston area, but the local ties play no role in White’s admiration for Florian.

“I know a lot of guys from Boston, and I don’t have any particular fondness for them,” White said. “I have a fondness for this guy because he wants to get in there and kick your (butt). He’s vicious. He’s relentless. He goes in there to stop guys. He’s not just (fooling) around looking to get a check. He’s going in there to beat the (expletive) out of you and finish the fight. If I have a fondness for him, that’s why, not because he’s from Boston.”

Florian has been on a roll since losing a unanimous decision to Sean Sherk for the then-vacant UFC lightweight title at UFC 64 in Las Vegas. Florian had difficulty getting Sherk off him after Sherk took him down, and much of the fight was Sherk taking down Florian and then pinning him to the ground until Florian eventually could wriggle free.

That loss motivated him, though, to add dimensions to his game. Post-Sherk, Florian has gone 4-for-4 in the UFC, submitting Dokonjonosuke Mishima and Din Thomas with chokes and stopping Alvin Robertson and Joe Lauzon with strikes.

He’ll face Roger Huerta on Aug. 9 at UFC 87 in a bout that has the makings of a Fight of the Year match and which could land the winner a title shot.

Nothing is promised. White said there are several fighters who deserve a shot at the lightweight belt and that the Florian-Huerta winner will be in the mix, but nothing is guaranteed.

One of the things that makes Florian different from most other fighters and most other athletes is that he not only understands but also he agrees.

Florian said he hopes to face the elite in the division, whether they’re currently in the UFC or not. And his trainer, Mark DellaGrotte, said as much as he’s biased for Florian, it only makes sense to let other fighters have their time now.

Florian is a better fighter now than he was when he fought Sherk, said DellaGrotte, one of the game’s elite trainers. And from that sense, he’s closer to the title than he was after the Sherk bout.

But with the depth of the division, it might be a while before he gets another crack at the belt.

“The list is long and the line is long, and there are a lot of guys out there, quality guys, who have earned shots,” DellaGrotte said. “Guys have to take a number. Kenny took his number and got his shot, and he came up a little short. It’s time for other guys to get their chance. You have to think of the sport, and the fans don’t want to see the same three, four guys always fighting for the title.

“Nobody wanted a Kenny Florian-Sean Sherk rematch right after that fight. It made sense to give someone else a shot. B.J. (Penn, the current UFC champion) came out and beat Sean, and now maybe Sean Sherk has to get to the back of the line. There are a lot of top-tier guys at 155, and thank God Kenny is one of them. But we’re not in a rush.

“We understand all facets of this,” DellaGrotte said. “It makes sense to us to go out and fight all the best and beat all the best and then go ahead and fight for the title. It doesn’t seem right to take one guy out and then get that immediate title shot.”

After Florian defeated Lauzon in April, he mentioned that Huerta would be one of the men he’d like to fight next. Huerta, who is 20-1-1 in MMA and 6-0 in the UFC, last fought in December when he finished Clay Guida and had been planning to take most of the year off.

But after hearing Florian mention his name, Huerta couldn’t help himself and decided to return.

Florian, though, wasn’t challenging Huerta as a way to prove anything or to settle a score. He mentioned Huerta’s name because of his interest in fighting the elite guys.

“I consider Roger at the top of the weight class,” Florian said. “He’s just been tearing through competitors. In my opinion, this was the best fight that could be put together in this division, and I’m in the UFC to fight the best.”

Florian is one of those guys who has excelled at nearly everything he has tried. He was a star soccer player at Boston College and has made himself into one of the world’s elite MMA fighters.

He showed he has a future as a broadcaster, filling in for Joe Rogan at UFC 83 and doing such a great job that White said of him, “He was awesome. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he had years of experience doing it. The hardest part of that is not stepping all over each other and making your points quickly. He was so well-spoken, and he made excellent points and had good timing. He’ll do that again someday, I’m sure.”

He’s a co-host on ESPN.com’s “MMA Live” along with John Anik, where he sets a standard as a studio host.

And he produces a prefight newsletter that so accurately describes what will happen in upcoming bouts, it would be gold in the hands of a sports bettor.

As good as he is at all of that, though, he’s better as a fighter. He’s one of the UFC’s most bankable commodities, a guy White and matchmaker Joe Silva can count on for a great fight.

The fight with Huerta carries much promise, and the night will be emotional. Huerta will be fighting in front of a home crowd and undoubtedly will get an emotional boost from the crowd.

But DellaGrotte is convinced that Florian will be able to remain cool amid the din and fight the kind of controlled, tactical fight he needs to win.

“Roger is a great fighter and he’s a worthy guy, but I don’t believe he’s on the level of a Kenny Florian,” DellaGrotte said. “I’m not sure Roger could go five rounds with someone like Sean Sherk. Kenny has fought bigger and badder guys, and I think that will show on Aug. 9.

“Roger has a great story and he has his struggle, and people can relate to that. He was a little kid selling gum on the streets of Mexico to help his family. Kenny comes from a great family from Dover and people go, ‘Come on, how can this guy be a fighter?’ But he’s a true warrior.

“The thing I like about Kenny is that he knows the way of the samurai,” DellaGrotte said. “When the samurai fights, he’s not emotional. It’s an emotionless thing. He doesn’t use things someone else did to motivate him. He’s calm and cool and collected when he fights. That’s Kenny, too. I really believe in this fight that Kenny Florian is going to be the matador, and Roger will be the raging bull. He’s upset at life and with the cards he’s been dealt. But Kenny knows who he is and where he is and what he needs to do to get better. He doesn’t get emotional about it, and I think that gives him an edge when he goes out to do his job.”

Kevin Iole is the national boxing/MMA writer for Yahoo! Sports. This story originally appeared on Yahoo! Sports and is syndicated on MMAjunkie.com as part of a content-partnership deal between the two sites.

The Latest

In this week’s Trading Shots, Danny Downes and Ben Fowlkes look at Ronda Rousey’s 34-second victory over Bethe Correia at UFC 190 and try to put it into terms that capture the moment without getting swept away by it.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?